Point of View

Thornton Wilder tells Our Town in the first-person reflective omniscient narrative from the Stage Manager's point of view. This is done for various reasons. The first is to allow a casual, intimate, firsthand account of Grover’s Corners as might be related by a friend –in this case, the Stage Manager. As such, the play assumes a friendly, idyllic, and colloquial feel. The Stage Manager gives the narration a reflective nature by telling the audience about a past time and place and recalling events and people. Since the Stage Manager is omniscient, all of the occurrences can be put into context for the audience.

Language and Meaning

In Our Town, Thornton Wilder uses language that is simple and traditional. As such, the prose takes on a poetic nature. The points that Wilder makes are clear and beautiful. Two such points include that marriage should be...